Open all hours

Once again, I hear today on the radio that the USA is planning to shut down Guantanamo Bay. To be fair, Radio 4, at least, prefaced it with "the detention camp at" but it was only the briefest of mentions and never re-appeared again in the news item, abbreviated to simply "Guantanamo Bay." What is being shut down is Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay. But even the US State Department colludes in the confusion by only talking of the Bay. It is a PR trick to make Amercians think they are becoming more ethical again in their foreign policy. If Guantanamo Bay was really being closed down, pundits the length and breath of America would be denouncing it. It would be even more heavily criticised than the handing of the Canal Zone back to Panama because by evacuating the huge naval base, they would be turning it over to Castro's Cuba. The mystification and myth-making will continue because of trickery and laziness, but be under no illusions, Guantanamo Bay will remain open.